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Elena stood within the circle of adults and police, waiting for a chance to escape She knew that Matt had warned Stefan in tiet close enough to speak with her

At last, with all attention turned toward the body, she detached herself froht," he said, his eyes on the group of adults "But he told me to take care of you, and I want you to stay here"

"To take care of h Elena Then, alht a o wash ot blood on me Wait here; I’ll be back"

He started to say so away She held up her stained hands in explanation as she reached the door of the girls’ locker rooh Once in the locker rooht out the far door and into the darkened school And fro a bookcase and flinging it over, sending its contents flying Fool!

Blind, hateful fool How could he have been so stupid?

Find a place with them here? Be accepted as one of theht it was possible

He picked up one of the great heavy trunks and threw it across the roo aStupid,stupid

Who was after him? Everybody Matt had said it "There’s been another attack They think you did it"

Well, for once it looked as if the barbari , the petty living huht How else did you explain what had happened? He had felt the weakness, the spinning, swirling confusion; and then darkness had taken hi that another hued, assaulted Robbed this time not only of his blood, but of his life How did you explainthat unless he, Stefan, were the killer?

A killer hat he was Evil A creature born in the dark, destined to live and hunt and hide there forever Well, why not kill, then? Why not fulfill his nature? Since he could not change it, he ht as well revel in it He would unleash his darkness upon this town that hated him, that hunted him even now

But first he was thirsty His veins burned like a network of dry, hot wires He needed to feed soon now

The boarding house was dark Elena knocked at the door but received no answer Thunder cracked overhead There was still no rain

After the third barrage of knocking, she tried the door, and it opened Inside, the house was silent and pitch black She made her way to the staircase by feel and went up it

The second landing was just as dark, and she stu to find the bedrooht showed at the top of the stairs, and she cli oppressed by the walls, which seeht cahtly and quickly "Stefan," she whispered, and then she called more loudly, "Stefan, it’s rasped the knob and pushed the door open, peering around the side "Stefan-"

She was speaking to an empty rooreat wind had torn through, leaving destruction in its path The trunks that had stood in corners so sedately were lying at grotesque angles, their lids gaping open, their contents strewn about the floor One as shattered All Stefan’s possessions, all the things he had kept so carefully and seemed to prize, were scattered like rubbish

Terror swept through Elena The fury, the violence in this scene of devastation were painfully clear, and they iddy Somebody who has a history of violence, Tyler had said I don’t care, she thought, anger surging up to push back the fear I don’t care about anything, Stefan; I still want to see you But where are you?

The trapdoor in the ceiling was open, and cold air was blowing down Oh, thought Elena, and she had a sudden chill of fear That roof was so high

She’d never cli skirt h the trapdoor slowly, kneeling on the roof and then standing up She saw a dark figure in the corner, and she an, and broke off short, because a flash of lightning lit the sky just as the figure in the corner whirled around And then it was as if every foreboding and fear and night true all at once It was beyond screa

Oh, God no HerNo No She wouldn’t look at this, she wouldn’t believe it

But she could not help seeing Even if she could have shut her eyes, every detail of the scene was etched upon herhad seared it onto her brain forever

Stefan Stefan, so sleek and elegant in his ordinary clothes, in his black leather jacket with the collar turned up Stefan, with his dark hair like one of the roiling storht in that flash of light, half turned toward her, his body twisted into a bestial crouch, with a snarl of aniant, sensitive, sensual ainst the pallor of his skin, against the sharp whiteness of his bared teeth In his hands was the lis outspread Another lay on the ground at his feet, like a crumpled and discarded handkerchief

"Oh, God, no," Elena whispered She went on whispering it, backing away, scarcely aware that she was doing either Her hts were running wildly in panic, like e She wouldn’t believe this, she wouldn’tbelieveHer body was filled with unbearable tension, her heart was bursting, her head reeling

"Oh, God,no-"

"Elena!" More terrible than anything else was this, to seeStefan looking at her out of that ani into a look of shock and desperation "Elena, please Please, don’t"

"Oh, God,no !" The screa to rip their way out of her throat She backed farther away, stu, as he took a step toward her "No!"

"Elena, please-be careful-" That terrible thing, the thing with Stefan’s face, was co herself backward as he took another step, his hand outstretched That long, slender-fingered hand that had stroked her hair so gently-

"Don’t touch ht her back against the iron railing of the ’s walk It was iron that had been there for nearly a century and a half, and in places it was nearly rusted through Elena’s panicked weight against it was toosound of overstressedwith her own shriek And then there was nothing behind her, nothing to grab on to, and she was falling

In that instant, she saw the seething purple clouds, the dark bulk of the house beside her It seeh time to see them clearly, and to feel an infinity of terror as she screa impact never ca her in the void There was a dull thud and the ar the crash Then all was still

She held herself et her bearings Trying to believe yet another unbelievable thing She had fallen fro in the garden behind the boarding house, in the utter silence between claps of thunder, with fallen leaves on the ground where her broken body should be

Slowly, she brought her gaze upward to the face of the one who held her Stefan

There had been too er She could only stare up at him with a kind of wonder

There was such sadness in his eyes Those eyes that had burned like green ice were now dark and empty, hopeless The saht in his room, only noorse For now there was self-hatred mixed with the sorrow, and bitter condemnation She couldn’t bear it

"Stefan," she whispered, feeling that sadness enter her own soul She could still see the tinge of red on his lips, but now it awakened a thrill of pity along with the instinctive horror To be so alone, so alien and so alone

"Oh, Stefan," she whispered

There was no answer in those bleak, lost eyes "Come," he said quietly, and led her back toward the house

Stefan felt a rush of shame as they reached the third story and the destruction that was his room That Elena, of all people, should see this was insupportable But then, perhaps it was also fitting that she should see what he truly hat he could do

She moved slowly, dazedly to the bed and sat Then she looked up at hi his "Tell hed shortly, without humor, and saw her flinch It made him hate himself more "What do you need to know?" he said He put a foot on the lid of an overturned trunk and faced her alesture "Who did this? I did"

"You’re strong," she said, her eyes on a capsized trunk Her gaze lifted upward, as if she were re what had happened on the roof "And quick"

"Stronger than a human," he said, with deliberate ee fro he had seen before? He didn’t care what she thought any longer "My reflexes are faster, and I’m more resilient I have to be I’ in her look made him remember how she had interrupted him He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, then went quickly to pick up a glass of water that stood unharhtstand He could feel her eyes on hiain Oh, he still cared what she thought, all right

"You can eat and drink other things," she said

"I don’t need to," he said quietly, feeling weary and subdued "I don’t need anything else" He whipped around suddenly and felt passionate intensity rise in hiain "You said I was quick-but that’s just what I’ ’the quick and the dead,’ Elena? Quick ; it means those who have life I’m the other half"

He could see that she was tre But her voice was calain "Stefan, I have a right to know"

He recognized those words And they were as true as when she had first said them "Yes, I suppose you do," he said, and his voice was tired and hard He stared at the brokenfor a few heartbeats and then looked back at her and spoke flatly "I was born in the late fifteenth century Do you believe that?"

She looked at the objects that lay where he’d scattered them from the bureau with one furious sweep of his arer "Yes," she said softly "Yes, I believe it"